NDCHS has been fortunate enough to obtain Heritage Lottery Funding which has permitted us to create a group of people with experience and a stock of equipment that allows us to continue with our Project after the money has run out. We have already loaned some of our equipment to other groups to allow them to run archaeology projects of their own. Tony Stevens is creating a list of people who are capable and willing to give talks to local societies on a myriad of subjects. Anyone who has the task of organising speakers (as Tony does) will know how hard it is to find new speakers and new topics.

Within our Society we also have access to expertise – we have retired teachers, surveyors, archaeologists and people with specialist knowledge e.g. finds identification, excavation methods, IT skills, aerial photography: we have one member with his own plane. The list goes on and no doubt other groups have their own ‘experts’ as well.

For example, we have all the kit needed to conduct a Test Pit Survey including trowels, buckets, finds trays etc. We have an Automatic Level used for taking site levels, we have all the forms and documents needed to run an excavation, a pole lathe and wood turner, a reproduction of an Iron Age roundhouse, Iron Age costumes for children, Iron Age weapons, the equipment needed to card and spin wool into yarn and loom to weave it into cloth. We are also lucky to have access to the professional expertise and more expensive surveying and geophysical equipment through Jon Kenny. We have a microscope should anyone ever want one, an Education Pack for Primary School use and people who can create a fully working anti-aircraft gun from two pieces of wood and a nylon stocking (we are still working on that But we do have a Trebuchet and have laid siege to Skipwith on more than one occasion. No children were hurt in the process.

Without wishing to labour the point, there are a lot of people with expertise and a lot of equipment that can be shared between member groups. Clearly a small donation for use would be a nice gesture to allow the owners to replace damaged equipment where necessary.